Nothing other than entertainment? Cute. I guess you know Rob, and the story, better than I do? Actually, he can't even swim.
The USN tables were developed by the USN and based on 100 test dives by USN divers of varying ages and levels of experience, not 20 year olds. You can see that the USN still uses divers like this for their tests, next time you are at the Experimental Diving Unit in Panama City.
Anyway, on to the Rouses. They entered the wreck through the round hatch opening on the forward Contol Room Bulkhead. This was the access used by the crew. Chrissy went forward to the galley. Chris followed when Chrissy did not return as planned and found him trapped. He extricated him and they exited through the port side breach between the forward Control Room Bulkhead and the pressure hull itself. The opening was about 3 feet across at the time, and probably 5 feet to the port from where they entered. I would suspect that visibility was zero.
Chris Rouse became unresponsive at the back of the boat. Chrissy was unable to use his legs before we even dragged him from the water, and not in a position to give us much in the way of information either. We know how they went into the wreck, where Chrissy was working, what fell on him, and where they exited, because they used a penetration line. Unfortunatley, they tied off the pen line where they entered the wreck, not at the anchor line where they left their gas.
On the next trip to the site, we found and videotaped the 3 stage bottles they could not find, the line going in the hatch, the collapsed wreckage that apparently trapped Chrissy, and the penetraion line still fouled on the life raft Chrissy was trying to remove, and then followed the line out of the wreck. In one way, out another. We gave the video to the Rouse family.
As a footnote, the Rouses had gas. Their tanks were not empty. They also had other divers in the water. They also had hookahs at 20'. Their problem was not that they were out of gas, or options. The problem that they could not overcome was that they were overwhelmed by their circumstances, first getting trapped and then lost. This was incredible stress. At least Chrissy, simply could not stay in the water another minute, and had to surface. The problem they could not overcome was psychological or mental, not physical, and there is an incredibly important lesson to be learned here.
It is not always the nuts and bolts. We have the ability to make the wrong decision for a lot of reasons.
Cheers
JC
I wouldn't take what I read in Shadow Divers as anything other than entertainment ... Kurson admittedly took a bit of literary license to make the story flow. Also, he's not a diver ... and anyone who's ever read a newspaper account of a diving accident understands how wrong non-divers can get it, even when they're trying hard to report the facts.
Couple things to consider about using Navy tables ... they were created based on the experiences of very fit 20-something year old men ... who had ready access to an on-board hyperbaric chamber. So I'd be wary of considering Navy tables suitable for use by your typical recreational diver.
And finally, if Bernie Chowdhury chooses to take great risks with his decompression choices, my guess is that he's doing so based on experience and knowledge that most divers on ScubaBoard do not possess. An analogy ... if Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon were to go on the internet and explain how to steer out of a high-speed spin, we'd be all ears. But if someone learning how to drive were to ask the same question of his driving instructor, the correct answer would be to not put yourself into a position where you'd have to do that.
Same applies here ... the "correct" answer really depends on who's asking the question.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
